How to Start Your Journey to Cybersecurity Implementation

MSP cybersecurity and the process of securing your own organization is the latest topic to pick up steam. Though, it seems many MSPs are falling short on their own security posture. The issue is a lack of time, money, or resources, and unfortunately, negligence. Starting a cybersecurity program is no easy task, so let us look at some common questions we hear on where to start.

“I’m overwhelmed with securing our MSP. Where can I start?”

Choosing a starting point is difficult: you have either too many information sources or not enough. An information overload causes you to seize up and prevent forward motion. If you are looking where and how to start:

  • Start small and avoid going from point A to Z in one step. Advance your way up the process instead of from the top down.
  • Choose a framework that best suits your business. Size, complexity, industries served, and level of risk are factors in the required effort to secure your environment.
  • Use all resources available to you. A cybersecurity program is not a solo project. Get stakeholders involved, use the right tools, and dedicate time to get the project up and running.

“Will the MSP Cybersecurity Jumpstart template in myITprocess help?”

The myITprocess Cybersecurity Jumpstart questions draw from CIS Controls 7.1.  Its intention is for businesses with little or no cybersecurity program and limited resources to secure their environments. The idea is to audit your organization, fill the gaps, and monitor and maintain your security risks.

“I’m too busy making money. Can I back burner my cybersecurity program?”

The short answer is no. The long answer is no, you should not delay securing your MSP from malicious threats. Neglecting your organization’s security poses a serious threat to every one of your customers. Malicious actors are no longer focused on SMBs, but on MSPs, by leveraging the value of data stored and accessible by a service provider.

“Every MSP is the same so can I do what everyone else is doing?”

It is incorrect to assume all MSPs—or even SMBs—have the same level of risk. Size, the complexity of operations, industry, and other factors attribute to the level of risk required for mitigation. There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution so many MSPs must customize their cybersecurity program to fit their specific needs. Although many frameworks and best practices are often used, the requirements are subject to interpretation.

“I am unsure how other employees should be involved in our cybersecurity program.”

A cybersecurity program has everyone buy into the idea that security is a top priority. Frequent cybersecurity awareness training keeps everyone informed and helps prevent internal security issues, especially since 90% of security breaches are due to human error. Developing and maintaining a cybersecurity program needs a dedicated resource. An MSP needs to treat themselves and their most important customer.

“I don’t think my customers and prospects are concerned about our internal operations.”

Think again. A survey showed 89% of SMBs would consider hiring a new MSP if they offered the right cybersecurity solution. This indicates SMBs are paying attention to their service provider’s security policies and procedures. It is no longer about getting the lowest priced support; those same SMBs surveyed are willing to pay up to 25% more for the right cybersecurity offering.

cybersecurity ebook

Getting Paid: Which Payment Options Should You Offer?

As an MSP, your goal is to provide the most value possible to your customers. But, to put it simply, you’re in business to make money.You provide a service, and in return, your customer pays you for providing that service. When a customer doesn’t pay, that’s when there’s a problem — at least for you.

One way to ensure you’re paid on time is by providing your customers with a range of payment options. You wantyour customerstopay quickly when they’re ready to pay, so your goal should be to eliminate any hurdles they may come across when trying to pay you.

But how do you know which payment options to offer your customers?

First things first, do you know your customers’ preferred payment method? If you don’t, survey your customers orgo through your bank transactions to determine how most of your customers are paying for your services.

For instance, how many of your customers are paying via ACH transfer (also known as direct deposit)?If I had to guess, I’d say most of themACH transfers are a common way for SMBs to accept payments from their customers.In fact, more than 24 billion ACH transactions were processed in 2019.

Of course, some of your customers may also prefer cutting you checks for services renderedWhile this may not be your ideal option for payment, if it works for some of your customers, then I wouldn’t make waves; however, you can try offering them incentives for switching to another payment method.

Accepting credit card payments seems to be the most controversial payment option for MSPs, mainly due to the added expense of credit card processing fees, but I’ll get into that later. My opinion on the matter is while not all your customers want to pay your invoices via credit card, some do. By offering these customers the option to make credit card payments, you’re showing them how accommodating of their needs you can be, which, in return, oftentimes increases customer satisfaction. Satisfied customers are more willing to refer your services to others.

Improved cash flow is alsohuge a benefit of accepting credit card payments.Instead of waiting for a check to cleara credit card payment hits your back account within a few business daysof your customer initiating the transaction. You’re unable to pay your bills and employees when customers don’t pay on timeYou’re usually paid in a timely manner when a customer pays your via credit card.

Of course, accepting credit cards as a form of payment has its disadvantages. For instance, credit card processing fees cut into your bottom line. While the typical credit card processing fee rangesit’s usually anywhere between3 to 4 percent for MSPs. However, many MSPs believe the benefits of accepting credit cards outweigh the additional expense.

Another disadvantage of accepting credit card payments is you may have to chase down expired or declined transactions. While that may not happen often, it’s still something to consider when determining whether you should accept credit card payments from your customers.

The more payment options you offer your customers, the more likely you’ll be paid in a timely manner. 

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Remote Work is Here to Stay for SMBs

Over the past year, many organizations had to rapidly shift to a work-from-home model because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although some of these companies were initially caught flat-footed, they soon found ways to enable better remote access to applications and networks. Many companies that had resisted remote work eventually discovered that productivity and employee satisfaction actually improved.

However, for some companies, these work-from-home programs were hastily cobbled together in a way that didn’t provide the best performance or the right level of security. According to the Top 10 SMB Technology Trends study for 2021 (from the SMB Group), work-from-home operations will drive new technology investments in the next year and beyond. That means MSPs have an opportunity to provide new technology, new security infrastructure and consulting services to help the firms improve current remote work scenarios, expand their programs and better incorporate a variety of network and application access models in the future.

The pandemic led to a significant expansion of remote work, with forty-one percent of SMBs indicating that they had established a new program. To add to that, 26 percent had expanded an existing program.

How did this affect employee productivity? Results were mixed. While 31 percent indicated that work-from-home efforts did not affect productivity, 33 percent said they had experienced somewhat higher productivity, and 19 percent had experienced much higher productivity. Less than 20% indicated that productivity was lower to some degree.

“Other employee benefits include better work/life balance and improved well-being, and WFH can also save companies money and make it easier to access workers from a larger, more diverse talent pool,” the report said.

According to the survey, medium and midmarket businesses are more likely to have implemented or expanded WFH programs and more likely to say that WFH has increased employee productivity than small businesses.

Helping clients with remote and work-from-home initiatives will continue to be important moving forward. The pandemic is still affecting office use across the country, of course, but even after it has passed, it appears that many firms will continue to rely on these arrangements. According to the survey, budgets to equip work-from-home employees are expected to continue increasing.

Although roughly 30 percent of respondents indicated that budgets would remain flat, 23 percent said they planned to increase budgets by one to 10 percent, and a quarter intended to increase budgets by 11 to 25 percent. Another nine percent expect to increase remote work budgets by more than 25 percent. That means nearly 60 percent of firms planned to expand remote work spending. These companies will need help with strategic planning to incorporate remote work, hybrid environments, and other scenarios.

According to the SMB Group, they will evaluate investments in several areas:

  • New technology and infrastructure for on-premise work. More than 60 percent of SMBs plan to alter the layout of their facilities and reconfigure office, retail and factory space to ensure social distancing and improve air quality.
  • Home office investments. Companies will also spend money on better equipping home offices for executives and employees, including everything from desks and lights to new computers, network infrastructure and other equipment.
  • Extending virtual collaboration. Everyone switched to video conferencing in 2020, and Microsoft Teams adoption expanded tremendously. MSPs will need to help their clients make the most of their Microsoft platforms and evaluate and implement additional tools like remote project management, digital whiteboards and cloud-based platforms.
  • Consolidating platforms. The pandemic caused many companies to deploy remote work and collaboration tools haphazardly. SMBs will need to reduce the complexity of this mix-and-match approach. MSPs can help them select new integrated platforms and ensure that those platforms are fully secure and protected from the massive wave of phishing and other types of cyberattacks we’re seeing this year.

Remote work is here to stay for SMBs. MSPs have an ample opportunity to gain new clients and expand business with existing clients by providing guidance and new collaboration and security tools that can keep employees safely connected and productive no matter where they’re working.

Michael Mowder is the Senior Director of Global Partner Success for Barracuda MSP, a provider of security and data protection solutions for managed services providers, where he is responsible for the partner journey from on-boarding, to implementation, through professional services and finally, renewal.

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IT Glue and TruMethods Join to Become MSP Vendor Powerhouse

Acquisition of TruMethods by IT documentation leader stemmed from vCIO integration between myITprocess and IT Glue

Vancouver, BC and Moorsetown, NJ — May 4, 2021IT Glue™, a Kaseya company and the industry standard for automated IT documentation, today announced the acquisition of TruMethods, the MSP industry’s leading business transformation organization. The acquisition is the culmination of work between the companies to integrate myITprocess™ with IT Glue, and deliver the most powerful, high-value virtual CIO (vCIO) software platform to allow MSPs to build more strategic relationships with their customers.

“As MSPs mature, a vCIO offering will become a must-have capability in their arsenal,” said Nadir Merchant, CTO and general manager, IT Glue. “Ninety-five percent of myITprocess users use IT Glue, which demonstrates just how well our products go hand-in-hand. As we worked on this integration, it became clear that we could do so much more for the MSP community by going beyond just the technology. This acquisition is a milestone for our industry as Gary Pica – a legend in the MSP space – and his team join forces with IT Glue to take MSPs to even greater heights.”

myITprocess is the industry’s leading vCIO solution that enables MSPs to deliver world-class technical services through a proactive, repeatable process. MSPs use myITprocess to quickly analyze clients’ technical environments, establish their IT standards, make business recommendations, track client feedback, and develop custom, strategic roadmaps specific to each client. Together with IT Glue, MSPs have a one-two punch that synchronizes all their IT Glue configurations and assets within myITprocess. In doing so, documentation details are seamlessly updated within myITprocess to accurately guide client quarterly business reviews that open the doors to new projects, new sources of revenue and stronger client relationships.

“Bringing myITprocess and IT Glue together was a natural fit,” said Gary Pica, Founder and President, TruMethods. “When I founded TruMethods over a decade ago, my goal was to make life easier for MSP owners and that is what we’ve done here by combining our technologies. The inherent synergies between our two industry leading products deliver unparalleled knowledge sharing, efficiency and profitability that MSPs cannot ignore. My mission has always been to help MSPs succeed by delighting their customers and that is what this integration delivers. This new era for TruMethods as part of the IT Glue family puts us in an even better position to help more MSPs reach their full potential.”

“The MSP community is indebted to Gary for the incredible work he’s done throughout his career,” said Fred Voccola, CEO, Kaseya. “The training, peer group and software he and his team have built have completely changed the way MSPs transform their business. Kaseya and IT Glue are committed to doing what’s right for the MSP industry. I can’t think of a better way to do that than by enabling TruMethods and Gary to reach even more MSPs around the world with their unmatched knowledge, independence, expertise and services.”

TruMethods and its peer groups will continue to be led by Gary Pica and his team from the company’s offices in New Jersey.

For more information on the myITprocess and IT Glue integration visit: www.itglue.com/myitprocess.

About TruMethods

TruMethods is a business transformation organization launched in 2009 by industry leader Gary Pica. Gary started TruMethods with the purpose of sharing a proven framework to help MSPs achieve more recurring revenue sales and industry leading profitability. TruMethods combines training, community, software, and peer to help MSPs reach world-class results. The TruMethods Framework, vCIO software – myITprocess, and world-class peer group TruPeer are changing the way MSPs operate. Nearly 20% of the Channel Futures 501 are powered by the TruMethods Framework. For more information, visit www.trumethods.com and connect on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.

About IT Glue

IT Glue, a Kaseya company, is the leading provider of simple and secure IT documentation for IT professionals around the globe. Our solution empowers IT professionals to document applications, devices, passwords and other IT assets centrally and in a standardized manner. Critical information is stored securely and easily accessed by those who need it, whenever they need it. Based in Vancouver, Canada, IT Glue currently has over 8,500 partners in 50+ countries, serving over 150,000 users and 500,000 businesses globally. For more information, visit: https://itglue.com and connect on LinkedIn and Twitter.

About Kaseya

Kaseya® is the leading provider of IT and security management solutions for managed service providers (MSPs) and small to medium sized businesses (SMBs). Through its open platform and customer-centric approach, Kaseya delivers best in breed technologies that allow organizations to efficiently manage, secure, and backup IT. Kaseya IT Complete is the most comprehensive, integrated IT management platform comprised of industry-leading solutions from Kaseya, Unitrends, Rapidfire Tools, Spanning Cloud Apps, IT Glue, ID Agent, Graphus and RocketCyber. The platform empowers businesses to: command all of IT centrally; easily manage remote and distributed environments; simplify backup and disaster recovery; safeguard against cybersecurity attacks; effectively manage compliance and network assets; streamline IT documentation, and automate across IT management functions. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, Kaseya is privately held with a presence in over 20 countries. To learn more, visit www.kaseya.com.

The World is Changing, With or Without You

I believe that 10 years from now, we’ll look back at this time, and it will represent a massive turning point for mankind in many ways, some of which we can’t even imagine today — the global economy, global geopolitical dynamics, work habits, the buying habits of customers, medicine, technology, national defense, and more.

It will take years before any of us know the pandemic’s full impact on our world. While we’re all just guessing today, there are some things we can look at to get a better sense of what may be in store for us tomorrow. For instance, this much we can agree on: The world will change, with or without us, and we can accept that change or fight it.

Let’s focus on just some of the changes and things that we’re seeing in the MSP channel and with our customers. For instance, changing work habits for us and our customers is clear. There will be a hybrid of remote work and in-person work.

Some of the additional changes we’re seeing at this time include the growing number of cybersecurity threats (accelerated cloud adoption; increased tech spending for SMBs), more compliance regulations, the consolidation of MSPs at the top of the market, entrance barriers for new MSPs, talent scarcity, and the consolidation of software providers in the channel.

All the changes I’ve mentioned have created a new group of economic winners and losers. Where do you fit in? How will things play out for your competitors? How will these changes impact your own business?

It’s time to stay on top of what’s happening, to read more, and most of all, talk to more people. Stay away from political bias as much as you can. Try to separate what you think from what you observe. Our opinions won’t change reality; the changes will come, with or without us.

Think about how the current and future changes will impact your customers, your offering, and how you hire and manage people. How does a rapidly changing environment impact the decisions that you make daily?

Having perspective on the changing world around us gives MSPs the competitive advantage they need to thrive.

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TruMethods Member Q&A: Why Structure in Peer Groups Matters

You don’t join a peer group to network with people in your industry. You join one to learn and overcome the challenges you’re facing. And the only way a peer group can help you with that is by being organized and providing you with the right content.

“I was introduced to TruPeer by a colleague that is a long-time member,” said Jason Buckley, Partner at Jasco Technology, a Las Vegas-based MSP. “Our rapidly growing MSP was causing a lot of management pain we were looking to both understand and fix.”

During our one-on-one conversation, he revealed how TruPeer is different than other industry peer groupswhat he’s learned from being a member of our peer group, and how other MSPs can benefit from TruPeer.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

How is TruPeer different than other peer groups in the industry?

I have found TruPeer to be hyperorganizedwith the meetings and content organized in a way that allows me to get what I need without wasting a minute of my time. Other peer groups I’ve been part of are not as efficient as TruPeer.

What has been the most valuable takeaway from TruPeer?

The validation of all the “gut feelings” I’ve had since starting our MSP.I expected there to be a better way to do what we were trying to doTruPeer has laid it all outplus I now have a close relationship with the other TruPeer members in my POD.

How have you learned how to work smarter, not harder?

I have been working even harder at working smarter! 

How can MSPs benefit from TruPeer

TruPeer gives you access to a gold mine of content that will help guide you to make your MSP more profitable and grow faster. I have built relationships with eight other likeminded MSP owners/operators that are trying to make their MSP better. I can’t think of anything more valuable than that!

MSP peer group

MSP Sales: Shifting Focus to the Prospect

An important concept for MSP salespeople and business owners to grasp and understand is that the majority of the sales process should be focused on the prospect.

Once in a while, you can slip into making the process about you and your own company. For example, if you are explaining how great your services are to the prospect, how you can fix or manage technology better than competitors, or explaining how proactive you are, you are making the process about you!

Remember: You’re not selling to prospects (nobody likes being sold to); you’re helping them decide. Foundationally, people buy for their reasons, not for your reasons. Instead of pushing your logic on prospects, find out what makes sense to them.

Listen and understand them

How can you make the sales process about the prospect without valuable information? This is where asking the right questions and taking note of their answers will help you in the long run.

Here are some questions that will be beneficial to find the answers to:

  • What assumptions are they making?
  • What’s their risk?
  • How do they view value in the relationship?
  • What outcomes are they expecting?
  • Do you understand their business?
  • What is their buying criteria?
  • How do they justify cost?

Have discussions with your prospects to determine the outcomes they’re expecting and see if they understand the potential cost to their business if they choose to do nothing. When you ask enough questions, you get both sides of the equation.

Put yourself in their shoes

Another tactic is to put yourself in the shoes of your prospect. If you were sitting in their chair, how would the conversation you are having sound? This change in perspective can help you understand their decision making and what they find important in their business.

Ask questions to understand how your prospects think and what matters to them most.

  • What if they knew what you knew?
  • Would they choose you?
  • Why would they?
  • Why wouldn’t they?

It’s okay to push back if something they say is contrary to what you know to be true. Instead of selling them, educate them. Believe it or not this actually separates you from other salespeople and provides an immense amount of value.

Salespeople, business owners, and even vCIOs can benefit from this concept. When you begin making the sales process about the prospect, you will feel your conversations and interactions begin to change for the better.

MSP Sales Mistakes

Technology Success and MSP Company Culture

As a TruMethods member, it is likely your Member Success Advisor has asked you and your team ‘how do you think the technology success process will improve personnel and company culture?’  Often this question stumps new members, as it is something that they have never considered.  After all, having great company culture is typically thought of as a ‘millennial’ thing, and so many companies, even MSPs, are a little more ‘old school’.  But company culture and Technology Success are inextricably woven together, and a healthy culture can really take a good company to greatness.

How can the technology success process impact culture? For one thing, the TruMethods version of Technology Success involves having strict edges on roles.  While one person may be wearing multiple hats, discipline is kept between those activities and everyone knows where their boundaries are and what they specifically need to do.  This leads to fewer people stepping on toes and everyone being more comfortable in their position.

Secondly, Technology Success encourages mastery in one’s position.  When everyone is equipped with the knowledge and expertise to do their job efficiently and effectively, it makes it so much easier to have not only a less stressful day at work, but a better work/life balance.  When someone is an expert in their field, it takes them much less time to fix problems. Since a lot of our day is spent fighting fires, we’d really get a lot of time back if those fires took less time to put out.

How can culture impact technology success? If the entire team is not on board with the TruMethods way, this can definitely cause the program to be less successful or even fail entirely.  Technology Success cannot be achieved by one person alone; in a perfect world there would be at least one full person in each role, to create more of those sharp edges.  If management is not on board, it makes it even more difficult because then TruMethods is not part of the direction in which your MSP is going.  It’s like if there are 4 people in a canoe and two people are rowing in one direction and two people are rowing in the other direction, the boat is never going to get anywhere.

Additionally, from a more holistic perspective, if an employee is not fitting in with the rest of the team, it is going to cause tension.  This impacts all aspects of the business, including the Technology Success process.  If the team is more worried about dealing with a human resources problem than providing excellent and proactive services to their clients, it can really derail the entire endeavor.  We would like to think that we can just put all of our feelings aside and work with others and sort of forget we’re humans while we’re on the clock, but it simply isn’t true.  All members of the team should be able to gel together enough to be able to work cohesively.

Well, what do we do if company culture isn’t quite at the top of our list right now? Before gathering the team together, it would be good for management to consider your Core Values and Company Purpose.  These are the driving factors of your business, the big things you want to put out there with your company, and the things you stand for as professionals and business people.  It can also guide employees to do the right thing in the context of your Company Way when management isn’t available to answer questions.  For example, one of TruMethods Core Values is to ‘Be Awesome’.  This sounds like a vague statement at first, but it’s so much deeper than that.  Being Awesome to us means that we do our best every day, we strive to go the extra mile, we do the best thing for our clients even when it isn’t the easiest path to take.  Our President, Gary Pica is very careful about the people he hires because this intrinsic motivation and how it fits in with TruMethods’ company culture is too important to mess up.

Another thing to do is to try and be patient when guiding employees on their newly-defined culture path.  Sometimes the ‘reset’ button is going to need to be pushed; everyone takes a breath, redefines what they need to do, and centers themselves to move forward.  People not only tend to balk a little at newness, but they also tend to be recidivists and go back to the way they did things before.  It’s going to take a little bit of time and practice for things to really sink in and become a habit.

Implementing Technology Success has a huge impact on company culture.  People love seeing their work rewarded and having a more predictable and less hectic day, and that is what Technology Success can do.  Tech Success can also provide the structure to have the time for people to truly succeed, like expert-level training in their role and time for continuing education.  In turn, having a healthy company culture is a foundational building block of any company to make sure all team members can work together cohesively.  While this may seem like a more modern concept, dealing with who we are as human beings can only further our knowledge on how to work together and make our MSPs the best versions of themselves.

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How Much Should You Pay Your vCIO?

One of the most important roles in your organizationis vCIO, forit encompasses a range of important responsibilities, including relationship management, client education, and lifecycle budgeting, many of which are essential to your organization’s successFinding someone who can consistently deliver results as your vCIOrequires not only time, but also financial wherewithal.

Once you find the right person to be your vCIOone of your next steps is to set compensation for that individual, but if you’ve never hired a vCIO before, this may be a little of a daunting task, especially when there’s a lot of pressure on you to hire someone capable of building strategic relationships, which would in return generate new monthly recurring revenue (MRR) at the right price for your business. In fact, you may even be unsure of how to proceed.

While there’s no right or wrong way to compensate your vCIO (compensation varies on many factors), there are some best practices you should follow to ensure that one of your toproles in your organization is paid appropriately.

For instance, avCIO should be paid based on experience and the results of the role, which is whyvCIOs are typically paid a salary in addition to avariable pay component (based on MRR managed, reaching a non-recurring revenue target, or retention).

Here are some other factors to consider when determining compensation for your vCIO:

  • MRR managed (a vCIO should be able to manage at least $150,000 of MRR).
  • Nonrecurring service revenue from the account base (as a rule of thumb, you should be able to generate 25-30 percent of MRR in professional service revenue). This is criticalbecause it gauges the relationship the vCIO has with your customers. If vCIO is not making the right recommendations or if the customer does not accept the recommendations, it’s the result of avCIO process in need of repair. 

vCIO’s salary does vary from MSP to MSP. Unfortunately, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to setting a vCIO salary. Now, I oftentimes get asked about the average pay of a vCIO. While it’s typicallybetween $60,000-$150,000I strongly encourage you to consider the above factors when setting a salary for your vCIO.

Ideally, you want a vCIO who focuses on business goals, prioritizing high-value tasks, and objective standards, and to find one, you need to compensate appropriately. 

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Why Jumping Into the Deep End of the Pool Matters

In your business and your career, you work to become more competent at your job. Your goal is usuallyto master your current role, but today, I want to suggest a different perspective.

When you begingetting comfortable in your role, it’s time for some change. Now, I’m not talking about something drastic like quitting your job or leaving your business. You have to take on new challenges, switch rolesor find some new and innovative ways to do whatever it is you do.

Ask yourself the following: Will I be more valuable to myself and others if I do exactly what I do nowor if I do something different?

Doing something different might be as simple as developing quarterly initiatives to improve process or metrics in your area of focus. My point is this: You can’t stay in your comfort zone for too long.Eventually, you’re going to have to take a risk by jumping into the deep end of the pool.

Many timeswe end up wading in the shallow end of the pool over time, and because of that, forgethow to swim. If you’re a business owner, there are always new challenges to become betteror more competent businessperson. If your role in the business is the same as it was a year ago, you’re wading in the shallow end of the pool, and it’s time to cross overthesafety rope line.

I’ve spoken with many MSPs recently that have told me that they feel more engaged in their business right nowbecause so much has changed in our industry over the past year— and that’s a good thing.

But if feel stagnant, it’s time for you to switch things up a bit.Look at every delivery area, your go-to-market strategy, how you look at talent. Depending on who you are, this process could beoverwhelming or really exciting.

Either way, it’s time to stop wading in the shallow end and jump into the deep end.

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